TOME Terrain of Magical Expertise: Breaking Limits
by SteelandSouls
Summary: 6 Months after the incident with the virus, our heroes are hard at work wiping out hacker remnants with ease. For the first time, however, they will come across something beyond their own abilities. Limitations will need to be broken to match a hacker who has already done so.


T.O.M.E. Terrain of Magical Expertise

Breaking Limits

The crowds gathered about the newly installed studio in MechCity. The murmurs of the crowd evolved into an uproarious cheer. Aoreva turned with flair, a wink, and a smile to the camera. "Six months ago, T.O.M.E. was on the verge of total collapse due to hacker threats which almost destroyed the entire Terrain and NetKing Software themselves. Yet now, we continue as if no dangers were ever present. We have these 4 heroes to thank: Flamgirl, the stalwart leader and fierce, fiery fighter, Alpha, the charismatic mythos and all-around good guy, Nylocke, Master of Suggesting Appropriate Introductory Titles and Dragon of the Frozen Blade, and Zetto, combat specialist and hot-tempered contender! United they become T.O.M.E.'s Special Task Force and they are here to answer YOUR questions!" Alpha fidgeted in discomfort, his bright blue eyes flipped back-and-forth as he leaned in towards Flamegirl.

"I'm never comfortable with these things, you know." He glanced over to Zetto and Nylocke, the former pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration and the latter engaging in his usually showy manner.

"They need to see us do this. We work as a bridge between NetKing Software and the players themselves. It gives the Net Kings time to work on other projects when the Mods can't handle hacker threats and the hackers themselves need to see that they don't stand a chance as long as we're around. So it's like…3 birds with 1 stone. As long as we're around, T.O.M.E. will be better for everyone." She didn't catch notice until the end of her statement as the microphone was placed in front of her with Foreva sliding between the couple.

"That's fantastic! Hackers, beware! The T.O.M.E. Special Task Force is out in the field and ready to eliminate you!" she cheered. Zetto's frustration grew ever more apparent as his teeth gnarled at the pomp and circumstance.

"Lady Foreva is right, fair citizens of T.O.M.E." Nylocke cheered. "No hacker threat shall best the best of the Terrain of Magical Expertise! Fair citizens, be joyous! For there will come a day when the flowers will bloom in Lavendera, the sun will shine in the fields of Sanctuary , and the streets shall erupt into fantastic musical numbers throughout MechCity! For I, Nylocke, Master of Hyperbolic Hopes and Wondrous Dreams, shall make it so. For it is on behalf of the might Net Kings that we do this and it is for our love of the Terrain that we do this and it is for each and every one of you, that we do this! Foreva watched with bated breath at the promotional just delivered by the moss green dragon man with bulbous eyes.

"You heard it here first folks! The Task Force is on the case! Now we'll happily take questions from the audience!" Hands, claws and other extremities shot up into the air as Foreva walked across the crowd. "You! In the really orange clothes! What's your question?" The short, orange-covered archer stood upon his seat. Username: Archy. All eyes were fixed on him and wouldn't budge as he hunched over in reservation.

"Uh…eh…right. I was told to ask –Oof!" He had a sharp nudge to his side by a slouching, brown raccoon that shot him a look. "I-I mean I want to ask…um…er…wasn't there-I mean- 2 other guys in you're-er- group? There was Kirbopher…and…uh…a purple-shadowy guy. I was-uh…um….wondering w-where they were?" He sat back down quickly to eliminate the peering eyes and visors. Zetto looked away from his introspection to see who asked the question. His former partner of the Gemini Tournament cringed in his eat as murmurs from the crowd began wondering the same question. It seems their fame preceded them. Flamegirl prepared to give her answer when from her peripheral, she saw Zetto stand up in front of the crowd.

"Archy…right? Kirbopher and Gamecrazed have given their heart and soul to this game and a lot of the effects of it, we see in T.O.M.E. today. Since awhile back, they've decided to end their time here but know this, and everyone should know this, even though they are done with T.O.M.E. they can and will continue to give everything into it." He sat back down and returned to his casual disinterest. The audience clapped and cheered. The screens throughout MechCity were active with the stream; some of which were placed on the building sides. In the midst of the crowds, a lone cowboy caressed his beard as his 1 eye watched the screen, the other under a bandage. A sinister grin crept across his face as he saw each of the faces of the Task Force. A challenge invite appeared around him. He looked over his shoulder to see who issued it. A mechanical swordsman appeared before him with a wave and a smile.

"Hey, dude. Do you mind having a match with me? I want to get stronger for that new quest line coming out soon." The cowboy slowly stepped into the middle of the street, never breaking eye contact.

"Do ya think you can keep up there, kid?" he asked in a slow southern drawl.

"I don't like to brag but I know my way around a grid," he said with a cocky undertone.

Battle Start!

The metallic swordsman made a swift dash to where the lone ranger was…was. He had long since passed the tin soldier and began to walk away as the grid came down.

Lose!

The battle came to an abrupt end as he continued to walk away. "Don't lie to me, kid. I have stronger targets to hit."

The heroes of T.O.M.E. sat around a campfire in the forest of Sanctuary. Alpha and Flamegirl naturally sat near one another. Zetto laid back into the grass, arms folded over his eyes in rest. Nylocke threw casual sword swings into the air. "That was a heck of a lot more work than I thought it was going to be," Alpha groaned. "I get why it's necessary but the public displays are just too much lights and cameras for me."

"It's all just a smoke and mirrors show," Zetto chimed in. "Especially with disingenuous hosts like that. Nobody can just ask a normal interview question. They have to be the next day-time talk show every time."

"Pipe down!" Flamegirl snapped to the blue haired bruiser. "A little publicity isn't going to kill you guys and if a bit of discomfort is the cost for having the privileges that we do, it's well worth it in the end."

"I agree with the fair lady," Nylocke interjected. "Don't allow such negativity to overshadow the truest benefits of being associated with the gods of T.O.M.E. It is our sworn duty-nay, our privilege- to carry out the tasks the moderators are ill-equipped to perform and the Net King's shall not soil their hands to perform. We warriors of T.O.M.E. must allow the Net King's their freedom to carry out the work they set out to do to make our sweet lands better than they were ever before. For instance, I am hearing there is a new quest line to be released without official release; a quest where numbers are of the utmost importance but only a sole prize at the end. O' what exciting spectacle awaits us? Cooperation and competition set into one dangerous adventure shall provide true tests to character for each of us. So says I, Nylocke, Dragon of-"

"Dragon of Droning On," Kizuna called out as she walked up to the group. Nylocke gave a proper greeting to the re-established Net King.

"Ah, Lady Kizuna of Bug Slaying, how does the day treat you?"

"Still as boisterous as ever, I see," she said, her poignant eyes averting her role-playing compatriot. She glanced over to Alpha and Flamegirl who kept close and issued a greeting smile. "It's good to see you all."

"Like-wise. It's been awhile," Flamegirl replied. "Usually you just send us messages from H.O.M.E."

"It's been busy lately." She looked over to Zetto who was peering from beneath his arm with his sharp red eyes. "Zetto."

"Kizuna." He responded sharply. An awkward silence filled the air to be interrupted by Alpha.

"So, is there a hacker somewhere? That's usually what these contacts are about." She folded her arms across.

"Actually, the Net Kings had a request for you guys. I'm sure you all know about the new quest line being added." She looked over each of them. "They want you all to be the first to test out, not only the quest but the new item at the end of it. They call it The Lost Hand. I don't know what it does but they were definitely excited about it. Feel free to grab a couple of friends but this is going to be low key so keep the requests to a minimum, got it?" She started to make her way to leave until Alpha called from behind.

"Will you be joining us?" The rest of the group looked over to Kizuna, awaiting her answer.

"I appreciate the invitation but I'm far too busy. Be sure to enjoy yourselves."

"Are you sure?" he continued to goad. Zetto sat up and looked over to Alpha with a sarcastic demeanor.

"It's probably best to leave her to it. Once her mind has been set on something, there's no getting through at that point." She pivoted around and gritted her teeth in preparation to say something but quickly regained her composure.

"I'll let you know if any hacker threats pop up but we'll try and refrain from it interfering with your test. Set the meeting place to next Monday in front of the statue of the Net Kings. Again, get only who you need." She vanished away in a beam of light back to the Heavens of Magical Expertise.

Flamegirl rose from her seat with a glimmer of excitement in her eyes. "This will be awesome! We get to test out a new quest and bring some friends along! So I guess we should probably get started on finding who we can get. I'd imagine SaturnDiva and Whyti would like to join us. Do you guys have anyone else that'd like to join?" Alpha looked up to his esteemed girlfriend with a tinge of embarrassment.

"T-Bones and Granda will likely go their own way on this one. They mentioned something about teaming with some other friends of theirs when it releases so I'd hate to throw a wrench in the plans they have. Other than that, you guys are the only ones I really am close friends with." He glanced over to Nylocke whose eyes widened to the point of bursting with excitement. The dragon soon caught notice of the others waiting for his response.

"Ahem. I am told Sir AsterRob has been working on this and- as a proper gentleman- he has no desire to involve himself with his own creation as it would spoil the surprises for the citizens themselves. Aside from such, I do have a rival I desire to see if he would care to join us on our exclusive quest," He looked over to Zetto who began to walk by him. "Uh, Sir Zetto of the Abrupt Exits, where is it you are going?"

"I'm high-tailing it over to Lavendera. This guy may not be the most useful but I do owe him a favor for awhile back."

"Sounds like a plan," Flamegirl said. "Let's meet back here and go over who we recruited. We're pretty strong so numbers aren't exactly pivotal but the quest's big to-do is about having numbers so the more-the-merrier I guess. We'll meet back here when we've got our group."

"Sounds like a plan, then," Zetto sounded off as he resumed his exit with Nylocke in tow.

"Last I heard, the girls were over in Mech City. We should check there first," Flamegirl told Alpha. "It's been awhile since we've hung out since Net King Software appointed us as the Task Force so it'll be good to hang out with them on this."

"Lead the way." Alpha said. And she did.

The rocky terrain of Lavendera was riddled with players fighting for supremacy. There were some familiar faces such as SniperWheel's head cannon destroying several players. Also some new faces as a rainbow colored light man cut up a tiger man. Zetto and Nylocke walked throughout the field with the occasional whispers and murmurs and points catching their attention. "That's why I hate the publicity stunts. Now we're celebrities. Can't wait until the Zetto imitations start popping up. "

"Oh dear, Sir Zetto, do you not see what our presence does for these young players? We function as an aspiring light of hope for all newcomers and veterans alike. As long as we serve as a pinnacle for justice in these lands, hackers and other ne'er-do-well shall not stand a chance in front of I Nylocke, Master of Dispensable Justice from Above! ...or so is the intention." In spite of his blustering, Zetto cracked a smile to himself.

"At least someone is enjoying his popularity." The two caught from the corner of their eye Zetto's target. Archy fired arrows at incoming explosives as fast as his little arms could. The brown bombs came lobbing one after another as the little orange archer panicked.

"Fear not, young archer! I, Nylocke, Master of Defeating Explosive Enemies, shall assist you! Whoosh!" He dashed in without as much as a thought to attack the unforeseen threat. The brown Rockoon prepared to lob another group of bombs until the last second revealed the green dragon knight closing in quickly.

"Wait, what!?" he screamed as the dragon began his assault. Archy caught wind of his friend being assaulted and pleaded with the approaching Zetto.

"Please! Stop him! He's hurting my friend!" Nylocke ceased his assault and looked over to Archy.

"Friend? What ho?" He stepped off of the frazzled Rockoon. Fur was displaced from one side to another. Archy ran over and lifted his friend off of the ground.

"I finally stop hacking…I finally stop being….da bad guy. I do all of this to keep happy little orange man all happy and smiles. Then you…Dragon Man, Master of Digital LARPing, still manage to find reasons to attack me. WHAT…THE ACTUAL…HELL!? Did I run over your dog or something? "

"Ahem. My apologies master rodent. I had made a brash assumption on the count of our histories and your explosives."

"Still not a rodent...besides that, what do you want- my lunch money?" Zetto pointed towards Archy.

"We're here for him. I'm sure by now you've heard of the new quest line being added. I'd like you to join us." Archy and Rockoon couldn't believe their ears. The Task Force making a request for a couple of nobodies to them was unheard of.

"Er-uh-but why?" Rockoon shoved him to the side.

"I would like an answer to that as well," he stated such as an inquisitor would. "Archy's a good guy and all but he's not exactly…um…how do I put this?" He tapped his chin in thought. "Ah! He's no Rockoon! I mean come on right? No offense," he said whispering to Archy who returned with a wave for a response. "Let's be honest here buuuuuddies. I may not hack anymore but I'm still a force to be a-reckoned with. Check this out!" He lobbed a couple of bombs towards some vacant space as they detonated as per his usual practice. "How Awesome-Cool was that? I can see it now! The prize at the end guarded by a horrific monster, 'Who can possibly get past this beast?' cries out the Task Force. Then, from a massive explosion comes the true non-rodent hero. A quick 1-2-and-3 and the beast goes down in a big ol' mess! The Task Force and Rockoon teaming up? THEY DON'T WANT NONE, NOPE THEY DON'T' WANT N-MMPH!" His loud mouth had caught itself a metallic arm between his sharp teeth.

"You! Shut up." Zetto commanded in his temperamental tone. "You." He pointed to Archy with his good hand. "You are either going or not!" He yanked his metal arm out of Rockoon's mouth as the critter rubbed his jaw as if there was actual tension in it.

Rockoon held up a single claw and wrapped an arm around his orange pal. "Just one moment please, I need to discuss this with my pally-o over here." They huddled over in secrecy while Nylocke and Zetto looked to each other in befuddlement. "You can't go without me."

"But how can I make them do that?" Archy moaned.

"He reeaaallly wants to take you. Whether you saved his life or gave him money-I don't know- but either way, we can use this. All you gots to do is tell them that you'll only go with me. Okay? Okay. Okay? Okay." He quickly spins Archy around and pushes him towards the increasingly impatient Zetto and the increasingly distracted Nylocke.

"Um…uh…yeah," he mumbled. "I'll…I'll only go if Rockoon can go t-too." Zetto began to turn away.

"Not happening." Before he could stride off, his leg was caught by the topic of the conversation.

"Pleeaassee take me with you!" He clung on even tighter than before. "You have my word-no, my oath-no, my solemn vow that you can trust me with this! Pleeeaasssee!?" Zetto violently rattled his leg to shake the vermin off of him.

"Now, now Sir Zetto of the Blue Skin and Red Temper- what could be the harm in bringing him along?" Nylocke lifted the pitiful-eyed raccoon by the scruff of his neck with Zetto's leg along with him. "He says he hacks no longer and the young master whom you've said you trusted may vouch for his integrity, can he not?" All 3 looked over to Archy in their awkward pose as he shook his head violently in agreement. "Surely, we can make such an exception for our former enemy." Zetto glanced down at Rockoon whose eyes became almost bulbous like a newborn kitten's. With a final violent shake, he shook him off of his leg at last.

"Alright! Fine!" he hollered. "But if I find that you try and go against the grain with us, I'll deal with you personally, got it?" A timid shake of the head acknowledged the message was crystal clear. "We'll meet at the new statue of the Net Kings on Monday morning. You will not tell anyone of this. ANYONE! Don't be late." Zetto began to leave without as much as a peek back while Nylocke waved a casual farewell to the duo as he followed after. "You said you have someone to ask as well, right?" he asked his dragon friend.

"Absolutely. A long-time rival of mine shall make an interesting addition to such a stalwart team as ours. Let us whoosh our way to him, post-haste! Whoosh"

"I'm not doing that…." Zetto said to no in particular as he casually walked after his whooshing comrade. Unbeknownst to them, atop a nearby cliff edge, the long cowboy listened intently to the conversation beneath him. He watched the direction his targets were going and followed suit from cliff top to cliff top. He had not noticed another entity watching him. A ninja dressed in a lavender gi kept her sights on the western renegade as he gave pursuit.

Alpha and Flamegirl watched as their friends debated the offering laid before them. The debate had droned on, occasional park-going passerby glanced at the scene and moved along. The dialogue had been going on for awhile and no real progress was being made.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Whyti!" SaturnDiva begged her close friend. Whyti couldn't' help but contemplate with some concern as to what would become of her hopes for the mission.

"I want to hang out with you guys on this quest, of course but I can't help but feel it's kind of cheating the experience, isn't it? We'll get an unfair advantage over other players and I don't' want to be known as a 'pay-to-play' type of player." She tugged at her raven hair as her headdress stood atop it all in a wintery glow.

Flamegirl stepped forward. "It's not the same thing as that, though. "We get some experience, we see something before anyone else, and we get to hang out. It's been so long since we have and I was hoping this would be a chance for us to get to do something cool together." It was SaturnDiva's turn to make her pitch.

"Please, Whyti? It won't be the same without you. It'll just be me and Flamey and we need you to balance it out." Alpha coughed conspicuously which got the ladies' attention. "Oh…right. Sorry, no offense." She returned her attention to the matter at hand. "Complete the triad, Whyti. Make our group whole again!" Flamegirl and SaturnDiva reached out their arms in open embrace with almost divine warmth to their call for their friend to join their ranks.

The winter wonder, Whyti, let out a sigh to relent. "Fine…I guess we can do this. Monday morning, right?"

"Yep. We're going to be escorted to the site so it should be a pretty straight-forward shot. This is going to be a lot of fun!" The three friends giggled among each other while Alpha looked on with a self-reflected smile. "We'll see you guys later. We'll need to be as strong as we can so be ready." SaturnDiva and Whyti clenched their fists in salute to their call to arms and the couples split ways.

"So that makes 6 of us so far. Hopefully, the other two have it figured out," Alpha wondered. "How do you think this will pan out?" He looked over towards an enthusiastic Flamegirl who began to ponder what to expect.

"Well…we're some of the strongest players T.O.M.E. has ever known to where we've even defeated the Net Kings. I can't imagine the challenge will be too difficult but if numbers are so important, I can't imagine us needing more than 8. The other guys had a person in mind so we should be set. Hopefully, we don't' have anymore hacker troubles on the day we do this."

"We should be fine. Kizuna hasn't found anything yet but after our public appearance, I'd imagine most of them would be running off scattered especially since the moderators are having an easier time tracking them down. It definitely makes things easier now that we don't have RubiRules keeping them under wraps from the others."

"It seems almost unreal," Flamegirl said with a nostalgic presence. "I just can't believe it's been 6 months since the Forbidden Power was finally eliminated. Rubi deserves everything he's getting in prison. He can rot right alongside NeoMutant for all I care. Either way, our job as the Task Force may come to an end after all the hubbub dies down with the remnants."

"Even more surreal than that, we'll have been a-ya know-a couple for 6 months." Flamegirl looked over to Alpha who looked elsewhere. He had not quite adapted to the idea of being in a relationship. The fiery fighter reached out to Alpha's hand and grabbed hold of it tightly. He looked over to her where her eyes waited to meet his. He simply smiled back with an embarrassment about him and they remained close all the way back to their meeting place.

The ice and flames clashed and danced as Nylocke's icy blade's force took DemonKing's fiery inferno head on. Neither force would give in and cave while Zetto and DemonKing's smiling imp companion watched on. He had his eyes on the fight of the role-players with an occasional passing interest. The imp's bulbous eyes and coy smile weren't exactly clear about whether she was paying attention to the fight or not. He glanced over to her, unsure of what to expect. "So are you like….his girlfriend or something?" She motioned to open her mouth until an explosion of the forces finally relenting came forth. The two foes gave one another some distance to clear from the blast radius.

"I see you've become even stronger than before, King of the Demons," Nylocke applauded.

DemonKing laughed maniacally. "Of course I have, Nylocke, Dragon of Obvious Analysis. I shall spend every waking moment upon these terrains to defeat you, my nemesis." Nylocke dug his sword into the ground to signal a temporary truce. DemonKing lowered his guard in kind.

"I come not to quarrel my life-long rival but with a proposition for you." The crimson-skiinned demon folded his arms across his barreled chest.

"I am listening." Nylocke had begun his pitch to his fellow role-player as his interest was piqued. "Ah, Nylocke, Dragon of Foolish Altruism, As much as I'd love to tail your party in the quest to simply stab the dagger into your backs at the most opportune moment, I'm afraid I shall decline, for you see, I have a legion of demons at my disposal and at the ready of my command upon the official release where we may crush any and all players' hopes once we approach ground zero. I shall gaze upon the despair on their face as we claim the true prize and not some prototype replica. This army shall not only be nigh invincible but it shall be led by my lovely Lieutenant over there. He pointed over towards the smiling imp.

"You never answered my question…" Zetto told the still silent character. Once more in hopes of answering his question, she moved to respond.

"NAY! I refuse to allow your army of demons to interfere with the players who seek to adventure throughout the lands of T.O.M.E. Foul being, though I respect your decision to deny our request, know this: I shall not allow your demon army to go unchecked by either you or your vile lieutenant!" Nylocke charged his sword's power as DemonKing answered in kind with a deep breath in. Their powers were fully charge and ready to be sent out. A powerful shockwave came forth from Nylocke's blade only to greet DemonKing's Demon Flame. The forces were locked in a powerful struggle once more but the fire slowly began to gave way as DemonKing's breath became increasingly short. With a mighty final push, Nylocke's shockwave forced its way through the flames to greet the self-professed king of the demons in a finishing blow. The explosion was final. All that was left was for Nylocke to congratulate his fellow role-player for an act well done…yet as the smoke cleared, it was not DemonKing among it. A brown Cattleman hat sat atop a bearded head. A bandage wrapped around his left eye. His spurs clanged as he slowly stepped through the smoke.

"Well, howdy there!" he said as approached with a harmless smile.

"Uh," Nylocke stumbled, trying to piece together what had happened. "Yes, um, howdy…as it were. May I….assist you…vassal from western lands?" He tipped his hat over his eyes.

"Why yes you can, good sir Lancelot," he said in his western twang. "That was a pretty nifty attack you had there, Lizard Man. It was something from a guy who could only be at the strongest of levels. "

Nylocke's cheesy smile openly exposed his inflated ego. "W-Why, Yes!" he flustered. "I am in fact the strongest dragon in the expanses of T.O.M.E. and none can match me. "

"You're the only dragon in T.O.M.E…" Zetto began. "Anyways, are you going to check on your-" he said turning to the smiling statue only to be revealed that she vanished. He frantically looked about to see if there was any trace of her-nothing. She had completely vanished without a trace. "Today is just weird…" he relented as his shoulders slouched over. The sound of spurs sapped Zetto's attention back to the matter at hand.

"That's good to hear, buddy," he coyly played. "I haven't maxed out my level yet. I reckon it wouldn't be too much trouble for an exhibition match, right fella?" The dragon drew his azure blade in preparedness.

"It would be no trouble at all for me to teach a newfound up-and-comer the aspiring heights he may reach. Have at thee!" The grid started to form around them as Zetto watched with intense focus at the newcomer. The ranger raised his hands in a boxing position and began a light bounce.

"This doesn't make sense. He saw Nylocke has an advantage at distance but he's fighting with such a close ranged style… Does he fire projectiles like Alpha?" he murmured to himself.

Battle Start!

Nylocke wound back his blade for a sweep but found his return was stopped by the player's hand. It came to a completely dead stop. "What is this dev-", but before the last syllable could leave his mouth the other hand came in and smashed the dragon man into a nearby cliff face. "Y-you!" The cowboy stalked his prey as he closed in. The grid fell apart.

"It's just an exhibition, lizard man…and you lost." His fist came down as a smoke cloud emitted from where Nylocke's avatar used to be. The only thing remaining of him was the text saying "LOSE". The cowboy pulled away from the cliff and looked over towards Zetto who had his arm cannon fully charged. The ranger smiled a wicked smile. "I was hoping you could give me my next lesson, Mr. Hedgehog."

"There's no way you should be this fast or this strong and I'm going to make sure you can't login again, hacker!" With a forcible cry for extra 'oomph' he blasted his beam towards the unyielding renegade as he stepped towards the light. The explosion rocked T.O.M.E. to its core knocking a few players off of their feet. The mushroom cloud was all that was before Zetto now. "Seems like you just caught Ny off-guard. You definitely weren't nearly as tough as you led on." His smirking celebration came to an abrupt halt as a wisp through the cloud came through and grabbed hold of Zetto's head.

"For a Special Task Force…ya'll don't nearly live up to your titles…get stronger. FIGHT ME!" With a squeeze of his hand, he was left alone with nothing but the same cloud left behind as his previous victim Nylocke.

Alpha and Flamegirl watched T.O.M.E.'s moon rise over the trees of Sanctuary. The campfire crackled and burned to fill the silence of their anxiousness of their friends' return.

"They better not be bringing an entourage with them. We promised we'd keep it small and I'd like to keep that promise," Flamegirl festered as her growing impatience became more audible. "It's simple. You ask a person, and then you take a person. It literally can't be any easier than that."

"Now come on," her counterpart pleaded in an effort to calm her. "It's Lavendera. They probably got caught up in a couple of fights. It's no big deal. Besides, we aren't going for another few days. I'm sure they'll be here soon. I'm sure they are perfectly fi-"

"THERE IS TROUBLE AFOOT!" Nylocke screamed between the two. The couple covered their ears at the sudden burst of noise.

"Damn it, Nylocke!" Flamegirl screamed at the master of interrupting conversations. "What's the trouble?" Nylocke regained his composure, straightened his posture and took a breath.

"Ahem. There is trouble afoot in Lavendera. Poor Master Zetto is locked in combat with a vile hacker! We must return to assist him at once for who knows how long he may hold out!" He peered past Alpha and Flamegirl to see the approaching Zetto and Kizuna. "Ah! Sir Zetto. What has happened to the hacker?"

Kizuna held up a hand to stop an already approaching onslaught of questions. "He came to me immediately after the altercation," she said pointing at her battered blue ally. "It sounds like he's just another hacker. The only difference being is that instead of making him a liability to the environment, he's just a power-obsessed buffer. I'll look into methods of taking him out of the game but if his speed is as fast as you both are claiming to me, then the moderators can't do anything about it especially if you all couldn't. Our best bet is just digging in the database information for now. Don't worry yourselves over it." She left Zetto with the rest of them and vanished off to the heavens leaving behind only a trail of light marked by a crown. The group looked about with a puzzled look toward one another.

"I suppose it's out of our hands at this point," Alpha said, breaking the silence. "If she says it's up to the Net Kings themselves then we shouldn't let one hacker ruin it for the rest of us, right?" Flamegirl nodded alongside him.

"Besides, it's not like he's causing any mass destruction or anything like that Rockoon guy, right? We should keep our focus on the quest coming up and prepare how we can for it." Upon realizing it, she snapped to attention. "Oh! That reminds me. Who did you guys end up bringing along?" Zetto and Nylocke looked toward each other.

"My apologies, Sir Zetto. I had mistakenly forgotten the part where we must defend our decision." Zetto planted his palm firmly against his face hoping the incident would go away.

"Guys…who did you bring?" she reiterated with both worry and a welling up anger in her tone.

The day had finally arrived. Alpha, Rockoon and Archy sat in utter silence at the feet of the new statue of the Net Kings now featuring Kizuna among their ranks in the place of the former RubiRules and a vacant slot for future development. Rockoon glanced up awkwardly at the red-head and took a quick huff of air. "So we're cool about the whole 'destroying what you love and aggravating a super evil virus for both personal exploitation and because we were hired thugs to do it' thing, right?" he said with timidity. Alpha glanced down sternly.

"If you try anything, you'll have to answer to me personally. Got it?" Rockoon pulled away with a tinge of fear.

"Jeez. Hold a grudge, why don't' you?" He then pulled Archy in with this lanky, furry arm. "What about you and me, kid? We're cool, right?" Archy tried to nod in agreement but couldn't get much motion in his neck by how close he was being held. "Ah! Sorry about that." The two muttered on while Alpha kept a close eye on the changes he had seen in his former nemesis. He kept his guard up let the scene wash over him. Over in the distance, the rest of the group was following Kizuna. Zetto was pleading with Flamegirl but she would not give him the time of day. Nylocke appeared to have been blustering to SaturnDiva and Whyti with the two totally enthralled in whatever tall tale he had weaved.

"Look! I can explain!" Zetto cried.

"Nope…" she replied dryly.

"But if I could just-!"

"No. I'm not listening to you."

Kizuna rubbed at her temples at the babbling happening behind her. She led the pack to the statue where the others waited patiently. Alpha met them halfway.

"Hey guys!" he called out. "Are you ready?" Kizuna tugged him by the collar of his shirt and motioned to the rest of the task force to follow suit.

"Saturn, Whyti, you guys get ready for. We have some last minute business to tend to." Flamegirl said to her friends. The groups split a good measure of distance apart and Kizuna finally released Alpha.

"Hey, so what's up?" Alpha continued. "You look pretty tired."

"You're damn right I'm tired," she snapped. "This hacker that Nylocke and Zetto came across…we're having some serious problems…like bad problems. I've spent the past 48 hours trying to pinpoint where this guy is in the code and the only thing I could get on him was his ID. He's locked his character from any access. He's dangerously smart. He's untouchable from our end. He's covered any trails he's had to his character being modified. Most hackers break into the world and edit it to their whims…this is strictly limited to his character which makes it harder to trace." She rested her eyes into her hand. "That's not even the worst of it though…"

2 Days Ago…

Kizuna walked into the lands of H.O.M.E. The pillars never appeared quite as bright before as if sanctuary itself emitted a divine light. The Net Kings sat at a table leaving an empty seat available for their meeting. She took her seat and they sat in silence for what seemed an eternity. She finally broke the silence. "We have a player who seems to have broken the leveling limitations set by T.O.M.E. We can't find where made the break-in but I need to know how pivotal this is to where it's absolutely necessary that it has to be stopped. "He's not doing the Terrain itself any harm but it seems like he's just a power-hungry idiot. How high is the priority on this thing?" She looked about the table. Her attention was immediately caught by the expressions on WebMaster and Execk's faces. Horror could be the only word that could describe it. "Hold on!" she snapped. "What did this guy just do?!"

WebMaster and Execk looked to each other while BitShrum and KindarSpirit merely looked on, awaiting their response. Execk was the first to act.

"Do you know why games put level caps on them?" he asked.

"Well…it'd be a balancing issue. It prevents an unfair advantage over other characters," she replied. "I fail to see why that makes it such a huge deal."

"Our decision to make the Terrain of Magical Expertise a virtual reality experience came with significant costs," WebMaster began. "We wanted it to be a place where the player can fully explore and be immersed into a world and the best way to do that is through the eyes of virtual reality. Of course, we were pioneers in the field and we made a game that brought us as close to the players' hearts and minds as we could. The result of that was S.O.F.T.D.I. Although she was an accident, she is living proof that T.O.M.E. is a place that connects very intimately with players." He measured his next response carefully. "If S.O.F.T.D.I. was the result of the positive influence closeness technology can have with humanity…it stands to reason that a negative influence must also exist."

"When we were in the initial stages of planning for T.O.M.E. long before you or Zetto even showed up, we wanted to do a stress test for limitations," Execk jumped in. "We tested the limitations for strength and speed and other attributes that would have an effect on a player's well-being and we found that we couldn't surpass 150 without diving into possible issues. Luckily, the people we had test it were treated immediately before any serious harm was done. We wanted combat to be a surreal experience for people but in a game like this where your character reflects your heart and the world before you is through your eyes…surreal always has the risk of being replaced with real depending on whose eyes you are looking through and what brain they are attached to.

"So tell me, then…" Kizuna said, trying to process what was being said. "T.O.M.E. itself isn't at risk but this guy is?"

"Definitely won't be a good PR story and after the incident 6 months ago…we're under a real narrow microscope," Execk continued. "We need to put a stop to this guy and if those kids can't stop him as he is now, we'll have to figure something out from this side."

"We'll get into contact with our new lead character designer and see if she has any input on the matter," WebMaster resigned. "We need to catch this early because who knows how long he's been going around like this…"

Kizuna bolted from her chair and hurried away. "I need to get back to work right now!" The Net Kings were left alone to themselves in a state of worry.

"Ya know, John," Execk murmured to WebMaster with reluctance. "If we can't stop this guy…we may want to consider bending the rules a bit to give the kids an edge." WebMaster stayed silent and in reflection…

"I'll think about it…"

Present Day…

The Task Force looked on in confusion on what to do with the new information. "So is this guy on a suicide run or something?" Flamegirl asked, somewhat take aback. "We can't let him go on like this. We need to-"

"You all need to not worry about it," Kizuna interjected. "It's outside of what you can do and you already have a prior obligation to your friends." She motioned over to the other 4 who waved to acknowledge that they were prepared.

"But are you sure we shouldn't at least postpone it?" Alpha questioned with some passivity. He expected the answer but wanted to test to see if it was truly consistent.

"And do what exactly?" she sarcastically quipped. "Don't feed his ego. Just enjoy your break." Kizuna waved over the rest of the group and began to lead the way to their destination. The members of the Task Force simply shrugged toward one another as they simply accepted the answer and followed after her. The forests of Sanctuary grew denser the deeper they went in.

The bushes and brush pushed to the side as the party made it to their destination. A shrine merged into the floor like a platform. Blue streaks of light danced throughout engraved patterns in the slab. Alpha was the first to take a step upon it. The small area rumbled as a pair of doors opened from the slab leading to a depressing corridor beneath the ground they stood. Everyone peered into it only seeing the faint glimmer of torches leading downward.

"This leads to a whole other region they are looking to build but starting it off as a quest line while the rest of it is being expanded upon in other areas. They call it the Chasm of Magical Expertise. C.O.M.E." Kizuna said in lazily expository fashion. "I'm sure you all have it from here. Enjoy yourselves." With caution and a wary disposition, they took their first steps into the catacombs of the abyss. "Hey…" she called to Zetto. He waited for a moment as the rest of the group filed in.

"Yeah…what's up?" He turned around to meet her eyes to find she looked down to the ground, holding her arm with reservation.

"I…uh…" she mumbled. He waited with bated breath as his heart beat steadily. "I-uh…." She shook herself back into her usually self. "I'll let you know if any developments arise with this guy. Keep an eye on your messages, okay?" He pulled away in a scoff of disappointment.

"Oh…right. Yeah I will." He followed the remainder of the group as she bit her lip in silence.

Kizuna was left alone. The natural environmental sounds were a nice touch to the world as it gave a feeling of serenity though it was short-lived.

"Ya know, little lady…" called out a familiar cowboy's voice. "It's best not to leave things unresolved like that. When ya start something, it's always smart to carry it through. Otherwise, you're stuck with regrets…stuff you can't take back like words, feelings, or some other nonsense it'd be easier to do without." His spurs rang between the trees as he appeared from behind them. Kizuna instantly realized who it was.

"So you're OneShot, right?" she said, drawing her gun with haste.

"Oh?" he mocked. "I guess my reputation precedes me." He tipped his hat in reverence. "Although I suppose the same could be said about you, Ms. Net King."

"The instant I beat you, I'll be able to trace your account," she warned. Her guard wouldn't so much as flinch or tease a stand down. "I'll make sure you can't get in ever again."

"Well, little lady," he teased. "I find this entire scenario amusing. The cowboy don't got a gun to shoot but willing to go to the draw." He raised his fist in his stance as before. "I warn ya though, missy, I value the price on your head a hell of a lot more than you value the price on mine. I hope a Net King can give me an actual fight." The wind blew through the trees as they stared each other down. OneShot made his mad dash to close the distance but where Kizuna once stood was replaced by the beam of light, taking her to H.O.M.E. He gnashed his teeth in frustration. "Damn you…" He looked down the corridor's darkness and let out a toothy grin. "Now what do we have here?"

The corridors were cramped as the group eased their way through the darkness. The cramped nature of the halls put all of the party on edge- a certain dragon knight was at the worst of it. He glanced from side to side in a panic as he held closely to Alpha who kept trying to nudge him off. Finally, the end of the hall was opening up. The approached a slowly brightening light. The sudden change in lighting blinded them for only a moment as they saw what was within the area. A whole city came to life with NPCs moving about the city. The stalactites hung over the city like a chandelier of crystal blue. Everyone looked about at the hustle and bustle with a bright flash in all of their eyes.

"Whoa!" Alpha started. "This place looks incredible!" Flamegirl took her first steps inside.

"No kidding…" she mumbled in a mesmerized wonder. "Let's look around for a bit and find out what's happening in town. What do you guys think about splitting up for now?"

"Sure. Why not?" Zetto chimed in. He looked over the group for a tally of all heads. "How about you, Saturn, and Whyti hang out for awhile and I'll take Alpha and Nylocke around?" Flamegirl stared at Zetto in a gaze of pure frustration. "…what?" he asked as he realized there were 2 others that were unaccounted for. Archy and Rockoon looked up at him wondering what was going to happen with them. "Oh, come on!" he objected loudly. "I invited them for us to have fun, not for me to babysit!" Flamegirl stepped into Zetto's face.

"You promised me that they were your responsibility! That means that you're 'babysitting them! Got it?" she poked him in the chest at every syllable while the rest of the boys laughed at the scene.

"Alright! Alright! Damn it! They'll come along!" He glanced over at the wide-eyed Archy and the puppy-eyed Rockoon. "Don't' cause me any trouble, am I clear?" They shook their heads vigorously in acknowledgement. "I'll have no problems cutting you in half again if you in particular try anything…" he pointed his metallic arm at Rockoon.

"Hey now…"Rockoon said. "We're all cool here, buddy. Nobody's gonna try no-nothin' no-how. Just kittens and rainbows between us. E-I-E-I-U and me are cool."

The party joined their respective chaperones and gave each other a wave of goodbye for now as they set out on their own expeditions to explore the city.

The market bustled with a good deal of people…or rather NPC's as the ladies looked about at the items that were on display. Hats, outfits, weapons and more were out for display for each one to see. The ladies looked about at all the stores had to offer. Some of the retailers were useful, others were scams.

"This city is really in depth…" Flamegirl said in awe of the site. "I can't believe that Net King Software can build something like this…"

"I'm not sure why this surprises you. You work for them, don't you?" SaturnDiva teased.

"I'm with Flamey on this one," Whyti said with a touch of distraction at the bright allure of the ceiling. "A whole city in the underground of T.O.M.E. is something that seems like something on an even grander scale than what most companies would do. The detail is incredible…"

"I'm sure there's an NPC somewhere the triggers the quest but I'm so caught up in all of this…It's almost too much to believe," Flamegirl continued looking at the architecture of the subterranean city. "It's like BitShrum went to an actual archeological dig for these building designs."

"He did." A voice called out from behind them. A lavender colored ninja walked up to them with her purple hair tied up in a tail. "He did a lot of research for this city and the cathedral was an even greater joy for him to make.

"Cathedral?" Saturn asked. "Is that where we are supposed to go?"

"Yep. It's at the end of the city so you just have to make your way across it." The 4 women stayed stone silent for a moment as the realization sunk in. "Oh no! I'm afraid I ruined the next step of the quest for you! Stupid mouth!" She bopped herself on her head in embarrassment as she continued to berate herself over her flop.

"She's a weird one…" Saturn whispered to her two cohorts.

"Don't worry," Flamegirl told the purple ninja. "As long as we don't know what's after that, we'll be okay. So don't' beat yourself up, over it. I take it you're overseeing this project?" The warrior finally settled down enough to respond to the question.

"Oh! Yes, of course. Well…" she said in correction. "I'm more here to work on the NPC project. Some of them are kind of wonky so I'm testing them out and fine tuning as it were." She returned her focus to the 3 before her. "I was told to expect some players that were approved to test out the quest and stuff. I take it that's you 3? It's really numbers intensive so I'm surprised there isn't…ya know…more of you."

"They guys in our group went on their own little excursion. We should be fine as long as we can meet." A quick beeping of notification resounded abruptly.

"Oh! Sorry about that. I need to take this quick," she interrupted as she pulled out her screen. That's when the girls caught notice of something odd. The input display that had popped up was marked with a crown on the back.

"Whoa! Hold on!" Flamegirl called out. "You're one of the Net Kings?" The kunoichi closed her panel and scratched the back of her head.

"Guess, I'm busted!" she said jokingly. "I'm the new lead character designer for Net King Software. I hear some bad stuff went down with the last guy so hopefully I can make things better than he did." SaturnDiva and Whyti couldn't fully comprehend the situation. They were in the presence of royalty. They both took a curtsy in her presence.

"Your majesty," Whyti began. "We apologize for our ignorance for we did not realize we were in the presence of one of the might Net Kings of the Terrain of Magical Expertise!"

Flamegirl yanked her foolish friends from their ridiculous pose while the ninja simply laughed. "Personally," she said through the rest of her laugh."I prefer Net Queen but I'm not picky. And please, call me Orchid. I chose the username because I like the sound over Net Queen. I'm incredibly busy so as much as I'd like to hang out with you girls and meet the rest of your clique, I have to go now. Good luck on the quest!" In a huff of smoke, she vanished away. The girls looked among each other with enjoyment at their lively encounter.

"…did she really say clique?" SaturnDiva curtly addressed.

The boys were back in town as they strolled through the downtown area. Alpha, Zetto, and Nylocke held the lead as the smaller Archy and Rockoon tailed closely behind as if it were punishment though they could not helped but be fascinated by the city that lay before them.

"My word," said the dragon knight. "This is truly a site to behold. To think that we as players have given them the freedom of time to construct such a wondrous entity in the finite amount of time we have been part of the Net Kings' legion."

"No kidding," Alpha said as he looked at the unique characters that passed him by. "The amount of detail is mind-boggling."

"This is what happens when you give the guys at Net King the freedom to work and not worry about any 'forbidden power' running loose. They get stuff done." They trio were so invested into the environment they failed to notice Rockoon pulling Archy away with him and away from the group.

"B-but Rocky, we shouldn't be away from the group! They'll get really mad at us!" Archy begged.

"Listen, kiddo," the scruffy vermin replied. "Something you need to know is when you're not wanted around. They don't' want us there and that's obvious from the get-go! Let's have our own fun! How does that sound?" Archy grabbed at his arms nervously.

"I…I don't know…it would be nice to look around…a bit I guess." The raccoon pushed his archer friend's back away from the group.

"Then say no more! Come on! I can show you the world. Shining, shimmering splen-whatever. You know the rest…" They dug into the crowd with no particular destination in mind.

The 3 men of the Task Force looked about the central square. So buildings stood out from the rest of the city in their bright colors. Nylocke's attention was caught up on 1 site in particular. A building marked with the sign pub stood out the most to the dragon's English tastes. He wrapped his arms around the shoulders of both his allies with tear-filled eyes.

"My comrades…my friends…we are gathered here at this time as destiny as made us fated to meet with the bastion of dreams. Behold! The pub arrives before us and we must greet its challenges face-to-face!"

"Um, Ny?" Alpha said as he peeled away from his surprisingly tight grip. "You do realize that we can't get drunk off of this stuff right?" Zetto followed suit, not long after.

"You're forgetting that he's also Nylocke, Master of Analyzing and Procuring the Sweet Nectar of the Gods, dude," he prodded at Alpha.

"Why, Master Zetto, I am very impressed with your expansion of colorful language since you had been a squire o' so long ago."

"Well, what can I say? I try…"

"Let us wait no longer, comrades! Alcohol awaits us! Whoosh!" He dashed away to the building in a blinding speed, leaving the other two trailing in the dust.

Alpha was befuddled. "Now, see, if it was a real bar, I'd get it."

"Uh-huh." Zetto replied.

"I mean you'd actually be getting drunk."

"Don't hurt yourself over-analyzing this, dude."

1 Hour Later…

Nylocke leaned into his hand in a drowsy stupor. Alpha and Zetto sat at his table in a silent embarrassment as NPC's watched the blabbering spectacle.

"I jus'…I jus' don't know wh-why anyone woul-would not do that…thing. Dost thou kn-knowest what I'm talking about, Lady..." the dragon realized his error in calling the two men with him ladies and burst out into a fit of laughter. Alpha looked on with the same puzzled look he had an hour before while Zetto just watched as if it were common place.

"Ones and zeroes…" he muttered. "Our friend here is getting drunk off of ones and zeroes."

"This entire scenario is weird…" Alpha groaned.

The two 'sober' warriors looked about at the site. It was a simple design yet somehow carried its own humility like a local bar that would often be visited by a group of demure friends. The characters that moved about were all interesting to follow. One of them began to make his way out of the bar when he bumped into a figure. The NPC was sent flying toward the back of the room which immediately caught the trio's attention. The man stepped his way forward with a bow-legged walk. He peered through the shade of his hat to see 3 of his targets at the table nearby. The red and blue pair stood up at the ready. The green one kept his head buried in the table. A devilish smile crawled across OneShot's face.

"…Draw…" he said in a slow stalking tone. A grid was beginning to form around all 4 of them.

"You shouldn't be here!" Alpha yelled at the stranger. "You're trespassing on Net King Software property before it's available to the public. I'd advise you leave."

"This is the guy, Alpha…" Zetto whispered over to him. "This is the hacker that wiped me and Ny out in a second." The trigger word activated the dragon as he rose from his slump.

"Hark! Did I hear a hacker was about?" He looked towards the door where OneShot stood like a strong, sturdy wall. "You…" he snarled. "You had made an embarrassment out of me and that shall not go unpunished! For the sake of T.O.M.E., I shall avenge my honor!"

OneShot raised an eyebrow as Nylocke's accusations. "Don't' go shootin' at me because your bubble of pride came a-burstin'. Besides, I have no interest in fighting you, or beetle-hair blue…" He pointed to Alpha with purpose. "What do you say, red-headed stepchild? How about we go a quick round? I already wiped the floor clean with your sickly green friend and Wannabe-Z…you're next…" Alpha took a deep breath and stretched his arm across the chest of steaming angry Zetto.

"I know all about you," he started. "You hacked your character to get stronger and it's not going to help you feel any better about your short-comings. Trust me, I know this! I had the constant bombardment of my short-comings thrown at me on a daily basis…until I realized that I had friends that could help me become stronger in strength and in will than any digital power could give otherwise. Please, log out so you can get help!"

OneShot stayed silent. The words hung near in the air but had not yet touched. His reply was a giggle until it evolved into a chuckle, into a chortle until it became an uproarious laugh. "Your friends helped you get stronger? Give me a break with your afterschool special nonsense, junior. Let me make one thing perfectly clear to the sickly green dragon, the spiky blue angst ball and you- the ring leader of it all- Mr. Hug-it-Out: The only strength in this world that is reliable is your own. With my own strength, I cannot fail. With my own strength, I cannot lose. With my own strength, I can turn a trio of living men into a trio of dead ones. Now fight me so I can take the pride of Net King Software and shove it under my boots!" OneShot moved in on the group as a smoke erupted from the floor. The room became so rife with smoke OneShot vacated the building until it had cleared. "Damn that woman…" He went back in to find that all 3 had vanished without a trace. "Alpha!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "If I'm not going to fight you, then it's going to be your sleazy girlfriend that meets the end of my fist!" In a wisp, he hurried away to find his target.

Peering from behind the bar counter, Nylocke, Alpha, Zetto and Orchid looked to see if the coast was clear.

"Follow me," Orchid commanded as they snuck their way through back alleys until eventually arriving at a small home on the second floor of a building. "In here…" They snuck their way through with their heads tucked until the doors and windows were shut close. "I didn't expect him to show up here. He must have tailed you all."

"Hey! What's going on? Who are you?" Alpha asked in a frenzy of panic.

"There will be plenty of time for introductions later. I need to find the rest of your friends now!" In a cloud of smoke, she vanished once more.

"Why didn't Kizuna warn me about him?" Zetto spoke aloud but mostly toward himself. As if on cue, a message appeared from her notifying him of the hacker's pursuit. He shut the message in a furor.

"I hope they make it back okay…" said Alpha.

OneShot went wailing through the city as quickly as he could on the hunt for the last face of the Task Force. He searched high and low in a race he had no idea he was participating in as Orchid bounced from roof to roof for the place she had last seen the team of women. OneShot took a quick stop after catching Flamegirl walking down the street. His target was found as he hurriedly approached her faster and faster. "Well, howdy ma'am," he said with a slight exhaustion in his voice. "I reckon you have something I want." He grabbed her shoulders and spun her around sharply. It wasn't right…it wasn't her. Orchid stared OneShot with intent as their eyes met with ferocity. Orchid had posed as Flamegirl in body only.

"I'm going to stop you," she said with provocation. His anger came boiling to the top. It couldn't' be quelled by anything at this point. He swung through her to only find it as a mirage. It dissipated away leaving him alone with his rage.

"DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU, WOMAN!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

The group remained silent as they listened to his screaming. Flamegirl cringed as Orchid barred the door. The party waited anxiously as Orchid realized what they were expecting. "I guess you're expecting an answer to your many, many questions, right?"

"It seems like he knows you or at the very least, you know him…" Alpha asked while trying to contain his rising concern. "Who exactly are you?" She pulled up a seat as if she were telling a story to a room of children.

"I have already introduced myself to the rest of your friends here but I'll do it again. I go by Orchid. I am the new lead character designer for Net King Softwware." The 3 men tried to contain their shock for the moment as there was still more to swallow.

"How is it that you know this OneShot guy?"

Her head started to sink as her usually casual demeanor became passive and silent. "Yes, OneShot…" she mumbled. "I'm actually his wi-…ex-wife." That nerve was touched as the group fell apart into chaos at the news.

"So does that mean you are the one that hacked his character and put him at risk!?" Zetto yelled at her. "That's the only explanation for it!"

"Yeah!" Flamegirl agreed. "His life is at danger and it's because he has this kind of power that's putting his health at risk! At this point, Orchid's eyes welled up with tears as her teeth started to grit.

"I know his health is at risk but don't you dare accuse it of being my fault! I had nothing to do with it!" Tears started to stream down her cheeks as the assault relented. The anger in her eyes at the accusations eased in turn. "I need to tell you why he's done this for you to understand him…and maybe you'll find out what needs to be done to stop him…Simply banning him from T.O.M.E. won't stop him…He'll just come back with a new character with the same problems and the cycle will start all over again." Her voice started to crack on her final plea. "Please, listen and if you still feel that the way he has become is my fault…I won't blame you…"

A moment passed with each character pondering what to do. Alpha looked over to Flamegirl to see what her call would be. Slowly, one-by-one, each of the six took a seat. "…Thank you…" she murmured through her tears. "The only place to start would be the beginning, I suppose. I was working under Net King Software's banner at the time but as a new face for the most part. I never really had a hand in most of the original development but some of the later modifications that came along were some of my handy work. He was a fighter. He approached me in a local bar and it was a fairly traditional love story of boy-meets-girl, girl-marries-boy and so forth. The hardest part of it though was balancing our careers…I loved my job but he traveled a lot so it was hard for our schedules to intertwine. I never advanced myself in the company because every now and then, I'd take some time off to watch some of his fights. I'd worry for him as he got hit and cheer for him as he swung back. Long before you know it, he was a champion and we were happy…" She bit her lip at what was to come. "That's when a horrible incident happened…He was defending his title as per usual. I was there to see it all and it won't be an image I'll ever forget. The person he was fighting had taken their rivalry to a personal level…it wasn't until after the fact that we found out he was wearing brass knuckles beneath his glove but it was long too late…a bad punch caught him in the face and completely shattered his eye socket." Tears began to form once again.

"He had to drop the title…he couldn't fight anymore…so he was stuck at home, dependent on me…that's when I had the idea to introduce him to what made my career so great. He had never had the time to get involved with games so what better opportunity was there than to show him what made T.O.M.E. so great. At first it was great…he loved it. He could get into fights again with players around the world and it took some getting used to but he eventually got the hang of it. That's when the nightmares started happening. He'd wakeup in a cold sweat, screaming at the shot that ended his career. He started to change. He'd get angry at me and it was my fault for biting back…since I didn't' understand exactly what he was going through. Our fights got more heated as he spent more and more time in T.O.M.E. fighting than we did together. It finally became more than I could bear…so I left with nothing but my clothes and a note that I left behind for him…he's resented me ever since but now that I see him as he is….I realize that only made things exponentially worse. I had been keeping an eye on him for awhile and after hearing from the Net Kings recently, I realize now that his path has only one possible route- insanity…"

"So we're just going to let this guy self-destruct?!" Alpha cried in protest. "There has to be a way to stop him. We need a plan."

"It's a shaky one but," she resumed. "I recently had Kizuna speak with me about what she needs…combined with some…less-than-ethical approval from the Net Kings, we can probably stop him…but it comes at an absurdly high-risk." She rose from her seat. "Before I give you all false-hope though, we'll need The Lost Hands from the cathedral. I'll help you bypass the fetch quest stuff but we'll need to be quick. The longer we're exposed, the greater the risk of him finding you. Losing to him wont' hurt you at all….losing to him will only be hurtful to him. As long as he can beat strong opponents easily, his ego will only inflate and I can't even imagine what will happen to him once he's run out of people to fight…or even if he scares all of them off…"

Flamegirl stood up and approached Orchid, resting a hand upon her shoulder. "You still love him a great deal, don't you? Otherwise you saying you are his ex-wife would have come a bit more naturally to you." She sighed and turned to her friends. "Looks like we have even more reason to get through this quest test guys. Let's get started!" SaturnDiva turned to Whyti and whispered closely into her ear.

"Jeez, was hacker stuff always this heavy for them?" Whyti simply shrugged as she was just as confused by the stakes put on them.

"By the way…Zetto?" Flamegirl continued. "Why are we 2 heads short?" He raised an eyebrow at the statement, trying to piece together what she meant. He snapped to attention at the realization that Rockoon and Archy had vanished. Nylocke and Alpha cleared space as Flamegirl closed in and yanked Zetto by his collar despite their unspoken, shared obligation in their overseeing. "You're so lucky we don't' have time for them otherwise I'd chew your ear off." He grabbed at his ear in a knee-jerk reaction although knowing full well she didn't' mean literally. "They better stay out of trouble."

The NPC's stared at the duo behind their jail bars as they shared their cramped cell. Each one began filing out outside of the jailer who sat behind his desk jingling his keys. Archy gave Rockoon a slight grimace about the situation they were in. "I'm not sure how you did it, but you managed to make NPC's put us in jail…"

"Look, I'm sorry okay?" Rockoon protested. "I just wanted a piece of the blue thingy on the ceiling as a souvenir. I didn't' know it was a restricted area. You'd think a sign or a flag or a dopey guy going 'it's dangerous to go over alone, get lost!' would have been a good indicator that touching the blue stuff is a no-go."

"How did you even plan on taking it?"

"That's…not important…"he muttered, looking away."

"You were going to hack again, weren't you?!"

"Look, I just thought it'd be a cool thing to have. I'd have gotten you one, too and as a matter of fact, I did!" He pulled out a couple of the blue crystals form his inventory and flashed them in secret away from the jailer as he stepped out the door.

"Ah man…" Archy groaned. "Zetto's going to be really mad when he finds out where we are…" Rockoon stopped for a moment and pondered while Archy buried his youthful eyes into his obnoxiously orange cap.

"That's something I've been thinking about for awhile now…" he started as he put pieces together. "This entire thing ain't right. You never knew hedgehog man before this, right?"

"Outside of the QA session they had, no. I don't' think we ever met…"

'So then why would he invite you- out of all the players of T.O.M.E. - if ya'll don't know each other?" His eyes slowly widened as pieces started fitting together. "Then another thing he said got me thinking…He said he'd cut me in half again….again?"  
"A-Are you saying that he never cut you in half before?"

"Heck, naw…" The only player to ever slice me like bread was marshmallow man but he said he was-wait! It all makes sense, now!"

"What makes sense? Who's marshmallow man?" Rockoon began quickly pacing in the cell while Archy watched on in confusion.

"That Kirb something or other IS hedgehog man!"

"You're saying Kirbopher IS Zetto? That sounds crazy…" Rockoon zoomed in, putting himself nose-to-nose with his cellmate.

"So crazy that it JUST…MAKES….SENSE… Come on, kiddo! We're busting out of here."

"But you said no hacking!"

"That was before we got thrown in the pokey! Let's bail!" Rockoon spun around real quick as he burrowed underground leaving a path for Archy to jump in afterward. Deep into the ground, the only sound remaining in the cell was the remaining echoes.

"Ow! Wait til I make a turn for you to jump in, you idiot!"

"S-sorry…"

The group walked up to the doors of the cathedral outside of town. The front of it could be its own city wall as it dominated the entire wall of the cavern to nearly the expanse of the town. The wooden doors stood as an ominous greeting to those who would approach it. A jagged slot at eye level made room for a potential item to be found. A terminal opened up upon Orchid's approach. "We'll bypass the whole excavation process. We need those Lost Hands as soon as possible. Good luck…" The doors began to open slowly as the cavern rumbled. It opened only enough to let the party file get set to file in…the familiar sound of spurs approached from behind. His eyes held a quelled fury behind them. His approach was like an animal stalking its prey."

"I finally, found ya'll…" he muttered semi-incoherently. "You can't run from me. No one can ever run from me! FIGHT ME!" His voice worked up to a roar as the group look on in horror at his slow destabilization.

"Go!" Orchid yelled. "I'll hold him off. I can show up here again if he beats me, you guys can't without admin privileges and we need those hands!"

"Let's go!" Alpha called as he led the charge inside.

"Good luck, Lady Orchid. May the Net Kings be with you!" She flicked a smile towards him.

"I already am one…" His teeth thrashed against each other as he saw them escaping inside.

"I won't let you!" He began to make his move as Orchid weaved a sign together duplicating herself just enough to pose a threat to his advancement to the door. It slowly shut behind them leaving the former lovers to settle their squabble. "So…you replaced your company with me to be in company with yourself…" His frustration became apparent. "That doesn't surprise me too much for a self-centered tramp like you." She winced at the insult but regained her composure.

"You're right…when I left you, it was for selfish reasons. Now I see for myself just how sick you are and I'm not going to turn my back on you now."

"Sick?!" OneShot mocked. "You think I'm sick?! It's real easy for you to label me as sick if it helps ya rest your conscience. We're done. That was established when you up and left me without so much as a conversation. The only business I have with you now is that you're now an obstruction that I'm going to get rid of…They are calling themselves stronger and I'm going to set that record straight real quick."

She stayed quiet for a moment as her finite army stood against her former partner. "If I can't stop you…they have to."

The cathedral was a glorious view. A pearly white marble tiled floor ran from the front toward the golden altar as the path was guided by a red carpet. Pues lined both sides in a mahogany splendor.

"Tis' truly a site to behold…" Nylocke said as he looked along the walls. Statues of knights lined the walls made of pristine clay. "C.O.M.E. may just be the most fetching part of this virtual realm…"

"We don't' have time for tourism. We need to find out how to get the lost hands in a place this big and we have no idea where to start…" said Flamegirl. She approached the altar and looked about it. "Typically, these things usually happen at the altar. I hope they still use that cliché…" Suddenly, the ground beneath them rumbled a fair deal. The sound of explosions and murmuring was heard in various parts of the chambers…or rather beneath them. "Hey…do you guys hear that?" They each pressed their ears to the ground to hear the rumbling getting louder and louder until it finally let out in the middle of the floor. Rockoon threw Archy out of the whole before prying himself out of the abyss he had created.

"It's gonna take forever to clean out my claws from all that dirt!" He looked up to see a livid Zetto, a furious Flamegirl, and a mildly disappointed rest of the party. "Uhhhhh…I can explain…" Zetto yanked him from his feet with his metallic arm.

"What the hell did I warn you about!? I told you to stay with the group and no hacking! Then you break BOTH-not just one- BOTH of the 2 rules I set up!" He wound up his other hand to eviscerate the source of his anger.

"Don't' hurt me!" Rockoon called out. "I'm only a miner!" Whyti giggled quickly leading SaturnDiva to bump her with her elbow.

"We don't' have time for this," Flamegirl interrupted, trying to regain control of the situation. "We'll deal with them afterwards. We're pressed for time right now. Whatever we need to get this stupid item, we're running out of time and I don't' know how much longer Orchid plans on holding out. They all scattered around the chambers looking under the pews, behind the statues and by the altar once more.

"Hey, what's this?" Alpha called out to the others from the image behind the altar of WebMaster surrounded by knights and a heavenly glow. At the very least, it looked like WebMaster. The hair was more spiked and a visor ran over his eyes. His halo was more of an arch as if a cog was split in half and his hands were less-so hands as much as claws. The aura of it was menacing but the most noticeable was the midst of it was a crevice for an object to fit. "Nobody happened to find anything like this in town, right?"

"With that OneShot guy chasing us?" Whyti groaned. "We didn't' really go item hunting so not really."

"So what happens now?" he asked turning towards their leader of sorts. While they delegated what was to happen, Rockoon took a closer look at the crevice. He pulled out his souvenir stone and placed it into the crevice. Nothing. He scoffed at the idea that what he had been useful until the caught a glimpse of the image of WebMaster's eyes flashed a hellish red. The others covered their eyes at until the light relented.

Flamegirl snatched Rockoon up from the neck. "What did you do now?!" He panicked at the sudden outburst.

"I-I thought I was helping! I thought I had the item!"

"It looks like he's right…" Zetto pointed out as the knights erupted from the walls. Behind Flamegirl and Rockoon emerged the wicked version of WebMaster in its entire size. Its demonic eyes glared down at the group as it floated closer as stoically as it could.

"Perhaps it would have been best to unite with Lord Demon King's Army…" Nylocke said in awe at the enormous site before him. The large mimic opened his hand as the knights began to move in for an attack.

"Everyone get ready!" Alpha called out. Battle poses took to the forefront except for Archy who took advantage of the hole made earlier as a hiding place. The battle started against the approaching knights in the shade of the monstrosity that hovered above them. Blades clashed and projectiles flew in frenzy across the halls. Nylocke's sword locked in a struggle with one of the knights. Whyti came in with the assist and cast a chilling wind which froze its legs leaving SaturnDiva an opening for the kills. Alpha's lightning dashed across towards one of the knights who didn't even wince at it. It came in for a swing forcing him to dash back and bumped into Flamegirl who was fending off her own horde with fire bullets from her pistol-formed fingers.

"Should we pull it out of retirement?" he said.

"It's been awhile so why not?" she replied teasingly. "For old times' sake." The two took a leap back towards the wall and used it as a jettison. Their bodies rotated into a fiery torrent as they tore through a set of knights. Their bodies slowed down as they looked back at their handiwork and issued each other a high-five before setting off on their own battlefields again. Zetto's neon blade emitted from his wrist. Its Z-shape flickered at the upcoming barrage of knights. He braced himself for the onslaught until he saw a couple of bombs laid at their landing area. He quickly evaded and upon landing, they each received their own personalized explosion. The whirlwind of fuzz that left them stopped his spinning and patted the man he saved on the back.

"No need to thank me, buddy. Just doing what I can to let bygones be bygones."

"Good. As long as I'm not obligated to thank you, I'll keep it to myself."

"Whatever floats your cranky lil' boat, Marshmallow man." Rockoon spun away into the fray leaving Zetto to realize he had been found out.

"Stupid rodent…" he said with an angry cannon blast to an attacking knight which he wouldn't' so much as dignify with attention. The knights kept coming and coming with no end in sight. Wave after wave kept approaching with no stop.

"This must come to an end!" Nylocke yelled to the others. "We shall be overcome if this is to continue!" Alpha and Flamegirl looked up towards the overhanging colossus. A leap off of the ground started another inferno-like rotation into the bottom of the beast. Immediately upon impact, the two split apart and were shot to opposing corners of the room.

"How in the hell do we destroy this thing!?" Alpha called out in desperation for an answer. Everyone looked frantically for a weak point among the giant while constantly fending off the barrage of statues. A knight hung over the tunnel Archy hid in. The young archer peered out for the first time since his initial retreat to greet its blade as it hung overhead. The knight moved to skewer him until a sudden explosion eliminated the immediate threat. Rockoon walked by with his face buried in his hand.

"We really need to buff you up, kiddo." Archy caught glimpse of the titanic duplicate and saw the crystal Rockoon had placed inside of it glimmer and flash. He began to motion for someone…anyone to take notice but his timid voice couldn't overcome the sounds of the battle. His hiding hole was calling him once more…but his heart was pulling him towards the monstrous brain of the knights. He pulled out one of his arrows and pulled it as far back as he could and with a release, he shot it towards the crystal that hung from his chest. The arrow connected…sort of. It hit head on but there was nowhere near enough force to penetrate it as it merely ricocheted away. More knights kept swarming in as the heroes were slowly being overwhelmed until the sound of an audible crack. The room stopped. The piece in the chest started to collapse and turn to rubble. Piece by piece, the giant doppelganger exploded into a huff of dust. The knights collapsed in kind. Silence once more filled the room.

"Did…did we do it?" Flamegirl muttered in disbelief. The hands of the giant were the last thing to fall, leaving a single pair of golden gauntlets as remnants yet at the same time…the door to the cathedral opened with OneShot at the entrance…tattered and angry.

"You sure done it, alright…"

The room was in awkward silence as he stepped in through the doors. His typical hat was in his right hand and in his left was Orchid being dragged in by her arm despite her opposition. He threw her across the chapel in front of the other. Alpha and Flamegirl hurried over to her side and helped her to her feet. "We got the gauntlets," Alpha said with an awareness of the threat before them. "I hope we got it in time for you to do your thing."

"Thanks," she said. "I'm still waiting on one more thing though…" She looked toward the group with a smile on her face. "You may want to cover your ears." OneShot took a quick turn behind him to see an orange metallic beast. Its screech rattled the room as OneShot tried to stop the noise but it rattled him to his core. The entire party of 9 snuck by while the roar kept him distracted. They made their way into the city itself which allowed the beast to stop its distraction. OneShot looked at the beast as it stared him down in almost a mocking stance. A flash and the beast had come apart by his hand as it unleashed an explosion without his detection that Kizuna's cat had escaped its demolished body to join the others at their agreed upon meeting place. OneShot looked about in hopes of detecting a trace of them. Ten whole bodies had vanished from his sight in a second.

"…that woman vexes me," he mumbled. His inaudible mumbling evolved into a chuckle which turned into mad laughter and eventually turned into a scream of rage that rattled the city. "If you're going to deny me my right to what I love…I'll destroy what you love." He tapped into his personal terminal frantically. With his final touch, he ran his hand on the cavern wall itself. Code ran through the cavern walls and went through the stalactites that hung over all of C.O.M.E. "Now…" he said with finality. "One…last…thing to do." He gripped at his head as if fighting something within its walls. He winced and writhed in pain as he pushed through his last plan.

The party was gathered at the building they had originally reconvened in thanks to Orchid's quick action. Kizuna snuck through the door and quickly sealed it behind her. The others looked on in frustration. "I'm getting real sick of this running away, nonsense," Zetto griped. "When can we beat this guy?"

"There are a couple of things we need to clarify before we attempt anything…" Kizuna said. "I'm sure you know we already agreed upon the entire event of your all coming into C.O.M.E. for early testing is to be kept a strict secret. That means the location to get here, the bosses you faced, and even the items you may have bought are not to be public knowledge until the proper release." She walked over to the gauntlets as looked them over. "What we are going to do is falling under the same umbrella. There is to be not a breath about this to anyone outside of this room."

"W-what's going to happen?" Whyti asked. "Should we be here for this?" It was another response from her that prompted SaturnDiva to nudge her with her elbow.

She thought it over but resumed her analysis of the gauntlets. "No. You guys are this far along and if these guys trust you to keep silent about C.O.M.E. then I'll trust their judgment if they feel you can keep silent about this." She handed the gloves over to Orchid who began her work on their coding. "We have a way to give you the power needed to beat him…probably. My question is to what lengths are we willing to go to stop a single player acting recklessly of his own accord." Kizuna glanced back over to Orchid who kept her expression solemn but her nose in her work. "WebMaster shared with me some interesting history on the development of T.O.M.E….and RubiRules is involved." Just his name triggered a response from Zetto, Nylocke, Flamegirl and Alpha but left no proper response from the others. "When T.O.M.E. was being developed, there were a lot of plans being thrown around. Some of them were more ambitious than others and wouldn't be a possibility until a long time after T.O.M.E.'s character creation structure was properly established to perfection."

"I have a feeling I'm not going to like the sound of this…" Flamegirl reacted.

"I'm not wild about it either but unless you plan on hacking your character and grinding an absurd amount in the next hour, I think we're out of options unless he does something stupid to where I can access him through the database."

"So what is it, exactly?" SaturnDiva jumped in, trying to participate.

"…Fusion…"

The room had all of its air sucked away at the notion. "Fusion?" Alpha flustered. "That's idiotic. We're separate people! It can't be done!"

"That's what I thought at first too," Orchid said, keeping her expression vacant while digging into the final touches of the code. "It's stupid to be sure. Two people can't become one like that."

"I can think of a way that can happen…" Rockoon whispered over to Archy who immediately became flustered at the suggestion. Flamegirl caught wind and ran a fist across his head as a drive-by disciplining.

Orchid continued. "Rubi's old notes on how it would work are touches of genius to be sure and it's clear he had some prodigy mind help him with the coding basis itself. Apparently, what Rubi had sought out to do was create a way to mesh together even more characters than what would already be provided by people themselves. Combinations of people coming together in both mind and avatars would definitely be a revolutionary concept. How he planned on working out the emotional structures for these people is beyond me but the concept is a work of art."

"I don't like Rubi by any means, but it'd be dishonest of me to deny his love for characters," Kizuna continued on. "Although, we all could have done without his ego." Zetto silently nodded in agreement. "The idea was scrapped early on as having minds mesh would be dangerous no matter who is implementing it –or at least that's what was agreed upon."

"So how, pray tell, is this-er- fusion suppose to work?" Nylocke asked.

"We needed the gloves as a way to utilize something that best functions as a whole unit when together as opposed to two separate entities. A left glove and a right glove are a pair."

"And we needed to go through that stupid fight for a pair of gloves?" Rockoon whined which prompted another hit from Flamegirl. "Stop IT!"

"Nope." She replied dryly.

"I'm sorry you didn't like the boss fight," Orchid said somewhat disappointed but not ultimately dismayed. "The reason we couldn't use any pair of gloves or boots was that we couldn't risk the information corrupting regular items in T.O.M.E. itself. If we had used a pair that could just be bought, we run the risk of all pairs being corrupt. The gauntlets were a fail-safe for a non-public item to be exclusive to our tampering." She set the gloves back on the table. "We're taking care of the last steps. There are two things remaining that need to be addressed…"

Kizuna looked over toward Rockoon. "I remember you…you're a hacker, aren't you?"

"Uh-wait -what? Noooooo, no, no, nooooo." Rockoon covered for himself. "You must have me confused for that orange freak Raccoon. My name is Rockoon…with like a lot of 'O's like a breakfast cereal…"

"That's right this guy is a hacker." Flamegirl said pointedly. "That hole in the floor back at the cathedral is totally this guy's fault." The furry hacker glanced quickly at the smug look on Flamegirl's face but quickly shifted focus to the immediate threat of his former employer.

"That was you, huh?" Orchid said with a quizzical tone. "I can't say Bitshrum and AsterRob will be too happy about it but we're glad you're here."

"Wait, you are?" The fire-brand female and the hairy hacker said in sync.

"You're important for our next step. The two of you that are going to merge need to have your character models altered to allow it to happen. Otherwise you're just going to look like a pair of fighters wearing lop-sided gloves. Whoever is going to be fused is going to have to trust you for the alteration." The room fell silent once more at the absurd notion of trusting their former enemy.

"You keep saying whoever fuses," Kizuna said to Orchid. "We know who has to fuse… As we had said before, minds are technically merging. The best way to avoid lasting effects would be to pick two of you who are similar enough in most attributes already. Character, both avatar and personality, are called into question here…" She looked over towards Alpha and Zetto who couldn't quite grasp what was being suggested. "You two are the best candidates for the job, and the rat needs to hack your character to do it. This is what needs to be done if we're not going to let this single player self-destruct in silence."

"Testing, testing!" A familiar voice called. The players huddled around the window and peered through to see a large monitor displayed in front of the cathedral. "I know ya'll are in here somewhere and I gotta say, this game of tag has gotten really old, really fast. Mr. Alpha and Lady Flamegirl…you two need to lose to me now! You will make your way to the cathedral in the next 5 minutes or so or I reckon you're gonna have some real problems coming down hard." As if recognizing its cue, a stalactite came plummeting towards the city and landed purely in the middle of it. "It'd be a shame to destroy this pretty city but since my dear ex-wife has decided to make this personal….I'll return the favor!"

Another stalactite came crashing down as he waved his finger in a taunt. "Tick-tock, you two. Time's running out." The message closed out.

"This is the opportunity I was waiting for…" Kizuna said as she opened the terminal. "We won't need to risk the fusion. He's got database tracks so all I have to do is ban him and that'll end things." She began typing while the others talked amongst themselves in relief except for Alpha and Zetto who looked over to Orchid. Her silence spoke volumes.

"Rockoon, how long will it take to hack Zetto's character and mine as well?" Alpha asked.

"Still…NOT A RODEN-!" he screamed back but caught himself after realizing that his actual name was called. "Ahem…Character hacking isn't my specialty, ya know. I'm more of a blow-up-the-world sort of guy. If I do it, it'll take-ironically- 5 minutes and even then there are some aspects I can't actually touch- stuff that only an administrator can access." Alpha looked over to Zetto to see if they were positive of their decision.

"I'm not wild about sharing brains with you…but we're similar enough to where I won't find it unbearable. Plus, it won't be the first time either of us have done it"

"What the hell are you two planning?" Kizuna asked with a feverish anger. "You don't need to risk your own mental health for 1 person?" It was Zetto's turn to state his case.

"Orchid said it earlier and she's right. We can't just leave him and ban him; otherwise he may come back worse than ever…he needs to lose. The shock may free him from whatever sort of mental prison he's conjured up." He looked over to Rockoon. "We're running out of time. We need to get started."

"So I'm going to go ahead and say 'no' to this!" Flamegirl interjected. "Not only are you going to trust a hacker we've had multiple instances of problems with, but you're going to merge minds to beat a guy who's doing this to himself!" She grabbed Alpha by the collar. "We don't even know if this will work!" Alpha grabbed hold of her hand and led it away from her grasp and into his own hand.

"Zetto and I know first-hand what it's like to have a constant voice of negativity running through our heads and feeding us lies. We can only imagine how scared he is right now despite his anger at the moment." He looked into her eyes. "We also know how this affects the ones most important to us…I need you to trust me, Stephanie." Zetto and Kizuna looked toward each other from across the room knowing full-well that Alpha's speech was limited to his own experiences.

Flamegirl's face grimaced but in the end eased. "…alright, Michael. If you feel that you can trust this…then I'm behind you 100%. That goes for you too, Zetto." She looked over to Rockoon who winced as she approached. "And…I suppose if Alpha and Zetto can trust you…then I can too." She stretched out her hand. It took the little guy a minute, but he responded in kind. The ground rumbled once more as another stalactite fell.

"Bitshrum is really going to be unhappy about this!" Kizuna exclaimed. "Let's get started!" Orchid walked up to the duo who offered her their support. She struggled to muster the words so she settled for what she knew she could get out.

"Thank you…"

She opened up a terminal behind both Alpha and Zetto and made way for Rockoon. Kizuna and Flamegirl made their way to the door with Nylocke, SaturnDiva, Whyti and Archy in tow. The half-dozen heroes started to file out.

"Hey!" Alpha called out. "Where are you guys going?"

"I'm one of the names he called out," said Flamegirl. "Hopefully, if he sees me, he will stop whatever world hack he has going on."

"Good luck, Sir Alpha and Zetto of opposing alphabets!" Nylocke shouted in a cheer. "When next we meet, you shall be a new warrior of unparalleled abilities! But do not be worried, my comrades! I shall not be bested twice by such a knave!" The room was emptied out leaving only Orchid, Rockoon, Alpha and Zetto.

"Are you nervous?" Alpha asked, trying to pass the time.

"Is it really the time for small-talk? Besides, we'll have plenty of time to chat in each other's head."

"Anything in there, I should be worried about?"

"Nothing we haven't already hashed out." They laughed quietly while Rockoon continued his work with pristine focus.

OneShot sat on the step of the altar waiting for whoever would walk through that door. The time passed by as he saw the entourage step through. Flamegirl stood at the forefront of it all. He stood up to greet his future victims with arms wide open. "I hope ya'll don't mind the renovations I made. I was afraid the stupid seats would get in the way so I moved them. The painting was incredibly ugly too so I just moved the seats into it. Definitely, livens up the place to where you could almost call it home."

"You're a sick guy, you know that?" SaturnDiva yelled at him. "What do you gain from trashing someone else's creation?"

"It doesn't matter anyways," Flamegirl interrupted. "I only have 1 condition before Alpha or I fight you…stop destroying C.O.M.E.! If you stop it, I'll fight you right here and right now."

"I'll hold you to it, little lady." He walked over toward the nearby wall and rammed his arm through it. His hand connected with the cavern walls and slowly ceased the impending destruction. He slowly pried his arm out of the hole he created and walked back into place. "You're the pretty little face of the Task Force, ain't ya?"

"Why do you have it out for us? We never even met you before Zetto and Nylocke got into that fight with you in Lavendera!"

"The chosen ones don't really get where they stand huh? Alright. I'll indulge you for a little bit but I'm not interested in playing 20 questions. You agreed to fight me and you WILL satiate my needs." He stepped closer to them without worry while all 6, conversely, raised their guard. "I fight strong people…I need to fight strong people…I lust to fight strong people. Ordinary players that received special recognition from creators so high and mighty that they rarely grace the people below with their presence are quite the opposite. Ya'll are no ordinary players and I will quench my need to beat you."

"So what happens afterwards?" Kizuna asked. "You beat all the strong players? Then what? You sit alone at the top of the mountain?"

"Of course that's not it. I don't expect any form of challenge from candlestick over here nor do I expect one from Alpha…I expect a fight at the top of the mountain…" He raised a finger to the sky as if the ceiling wasn't there any longer. "There's only one place left to go when Earth ain't enough…"

"H.O.M.E…"

"That's right, kitty cat and you're on my list. You've ran from me twice but it ain't happening a third time." Nylocke bounded forward to stand at the front of the pack.

"Don't you dare believe that you could possibly step past us that easily! We are of number and of strength and more than enough to-"

"I'm none too interested in you, Mr. Gecko." OneShot mocked. "I wiped the floor clean with you last time we fought. Now run along and save me some money on car insurance."

"Is that an American thing? I'm not seeing the connection between lizards and automotive insurance," Nylocke asked Archy in befuddlement with whom the latter could only reply with a silent shrug. "Regardless!" he yelled sneaking back into character. "Things shall not play as they have last time, I assure you."

"Then you'd best all come at me at once. I'd hate to make a liar out of you." The battle started as the 6 made their best effort to swarm him at once but had long since vanished. They looked about and counted heads to find a small orange one had gone missing. A small orange hat floated down from the remains of a cloud marred by the text reading "LOSE".

"Lady Whyti!" Nylocke called out to her fellow warrior of the snow. "Let's cool off our foe!"

"Right!" she responded with heart. The each motioned for a torrential downpour of snow and ice in OneShot's direction. An ice casing started to form around his boy. He looked about to gauge what was happening to him before it was too late and he was surrounded by his coffin of ice.

"My turn!" Flamegirl made a boosting dash wrapping her body in fire. She was near a final impact until the ice cracked. She stopped her attack and took a jump backward back to her starting place. The ice shattered into bits. OneShot motioned his neck and shoulders about as if they could actually have been stiff.

"Clever girl. I almost had you though." He pitched his fingers together as to mark how close her defeat would have been. "Eenie…Meenie….Miney…" He dashed towards SaturnDiva who stumbled back at the sudden approach. Nylocke jumped forward in protection only to have himself been protected by Whyti. The two fended off OneShot's fist with intensity matched only if their life were to be at risk. OneShot weaved his way back from the event that just occurred. "Don't tell me ya'll actually buy into that friendship nonsense?"

"Indeed we do!" Nylocke shouted back with newfound confidence. "We are stronger together than any force you dare conjure against us!"

"You're all idiots!" Oneshot's temper flared up once more. "I don't care how many people line up on the beach! You can't stop a hurricane! What's more- friendship can only so far as you can trust and I can speak from experience! There's nothing else you can trust in this world besides your own strength! It never abandons you! It never betrays you! It never lies to you!"

"Can you really say that, hacker?" Kizuna prodded knowing full well his speech was tainted by his cheating.

"Yes! I can! I'll show you all just what my own strength can do!" A new development was occurring. There was an ominous aura emitting from his character. It rumbled and roared as the heroes prepared for the onslaught.

"This is getting really bad…" Kizuna said watching OneShot devolve into lunacy. "They need to hurry up…" OneShot raised his hand and ran it across the hall in a sweeping motion. A shockwave forced some of them off of their feet. SaturnDiva and Whyti were the next to go, having been forced away. Nylocke, Flamegirl, and Kizuna were the last line of defense until they were ready to undergo their plan. The power could almost be felt.

"Do you see now, dragon breath? No amount of friendship speeches is going to stop what is inevitable! Now amount of standing together is going to stop fate! I'm destined to be the strongest and eliminating you 3 brings me one step closer to proving it!" He prepared to make another mad dash until Orchid made her appearance behind the group of 3. A couple of bombs exploded off the back of his head as Rockoon spun his way in. Finally, the main event themselves walked through the door behind him, each holding the glove they had sequested. Alpha held a left glove while Zetto held a right glove. Their eyes screamed preparedness though in secret they were both frightened.

"If you have such a problem with us standing together…how about we stand as one?" Alpha said, smirking. The rest stood back as OneShot responded with an uncertain grin.

"Ya know…for a guy named Alpha…it sure is odd that you'd be my last opponent…for now at least." He peered over his shoulder at the rest of the group. "Though, I think that having a crowd for our fight might be a bit…stuffy. With another sweep of his hand a shockwave began to attack the group. First Nylocke went out. Then it was Flamegirl and Kizuna. Rockoon joined them soon after. Orchid…in her last moments issued a final plea.

"Save him…you have to beat him! Please!" She vanished. A variety of plumes of smoke labeled with the LOSE text were all that remained. The 3 warriors stood alone in the battle torn arena.

"Gotta say," OneShot bragged. "That felt pretty damn good…better than se-"

"We promised your wife we were going to stop you, and we intend to beat you to do it. One way or another you're going to be stopped." OneShot winced in disgust.

"Ex-wife thanks. If ya think you can stop me, then by all means, give me your best shot."

"You don't' get it!" Zetto shouted. "Even if you don't care about her, even if all you care about it your own strength, you are breaking systems that are causing you harm!"

"Yeah, nice joke there, kid. I don't buy it. Nothing has been clearer to me now than ever before. What I'd recommend you do is join me up on the mountaintop and not be such a goody-two-shoes so I don't wipe you out a second time."

Alpha and Zetto placed their gloves on simultaneously on their respective hands. "I guess we'll do just that." They replied in perfect sync. The room started to flicker a blinding light until a bright purple flash ultimately settled down the brightness. OneShot removed his hand from in front of his eyes to see what creation was before him. His hair shined a royal purple. His teeth were almost like a vampire's in sharpness. Alpha's wings were still there but metallic. Zetto's gun arm was still there but inscribed with patterns and designs. The gauntlet upon that hand had changed to adjust for its new form. It was the eyes though that told the story. They beamed with confidence.

"Well that ain't normal…" OneShot mumbled in awe. The new warrior looked at his new form, drinking it in.

"I guess I know how you feel now…" the new entity said, still taking in the new form.

"That's good to know…now I can get a proper challenge and then I can finally reach myself to new heights! Give me the satisfaction I deserve! It will feel so much better when I put you do-"

The figure raised his finger up to interrupt. "I need a name."

"Uh-a name?"

"That's right. I need a name. I need something that you can repeat for when you get asked who beat you. AlphZett? No... Zetpha? That's not right either. Alphabetto?"

"Whatever the hell your name is doesn't matter!" OneShot screamed in furor. "You're just another no-name that I'm going to add to my long list of wins. In case you haven't realized, I'm undefeated and if you can't take me seriously, then I'm going to have to fix that!"

The two forms vanished in a blinding speed that rattle the core of T.O.M.E. players above started to feel the vibrations from the clash as they kept their speeds at an ever-increasing momentum. They took a stop as the world itself settled down. The group defeated before had finally made their return to the fight to only catch quick collisions between the two fighters.

"What the heck is that? Flamegirl asked to no one in particular. They all watched as the fight came to a head as they slowed down. OneShot was starting to slow as the fight dragged on. They caught a good look at the new creation they managed. "That's what they combine into? Incredible…"

"Hey guys!" the fusion called out. "I'll be done with this in a minute. Can you guys think of a name for me? This guy says it's unimportant but I'm going to have to disagree a bit."

"Alphazet!" SaturnDiva yelled from behind the crowd. The each looked to her with bewilderment. "What? I figured I'd contribute something. This is over my head, for sure."

"I love it!" he called out. OneShot became furious. It bordered closely on hatred.

"I'll kill you! I need to kill you! I AM THE BEST!"

"The only thing you are right now is the pest and it is high-time you got swatted down." The ominous feeling from before came to fruition. OneShot screamed and thrashed about gripping at his head as if the anger and hatred was trying to forcibly rip its way out of his skull. "…that's not good." A black shockwave emitted from his character in all directions.

"I'LL TEAR YOU APART!" The battle resumed. OneShot started to pull the upper hand with fierce combinations through a powerful second wind. A well-placed bicycle kick sent Alphazet crashing to the ground. "I'm not done! I'll never be done!" Orchid watched on in terror at the steadily accelerating collapse of her former husband's mentality. OneShot placed himself well across the hall. He grabbed hold of his fist and clenched tight. It began to store a torrent of power. It was as if a black hole was forming around his fist.

Alphazet stood strong after his fall. "This has gone on too long. It's time for you to go home…" The mechanized gauntlet arm began to charge Zetto's trademark cannon. The palm started to shine a bright blue but the finger tips charged with electricity.

"I am going to H.O.M.E. and it happens when I put you behind me!" Alphazet's cannon fully charged and with a flicker of electricity, the met the fully powered fist of OneShot. The two forces clashed. Lightning tore around the cathedral without control. The others jaws couldn't be lifted. The scene was too much to understand. Kizuna caught something odd from the corners of the cathedral though. Quick blue flashes of text occasionally appeared from the walls.

"Oh no!" She bounded forward to make her voice her to the fused warrior. "This can't go on any longer! The game is starting to crash! If you don't end this now, then the world itself will crash!" The charging OneShot took notice of her warning. Alphazet flashed a quick grin.

"Just the opportunity I was looking for." With one final push, the cannon overpowered the distracted OneShot. The dust started to clear. OneShot didn't vanish but he was certainly down. Orchid jumped in swiftly and deactivated any more movements his character could do. The rest of the group rushed over to Alphazet to see the man himself and bombarding him with questions.

"Did it hurt, combining like that?" Archy had asked.

"So what has become of your individual thoughts?" Nylocke followed up swiftly.

"Do you know each others' secrets?" Whyti pried.

"…do we know how we're pulling you apart?" Flamegirl said with a wary temperament.

Alphazet let out a quick laugh. "No, yes, yes, and of course." He held out 1 hand each to Kizuna and Flamegirl. "You literally have to pull us apart." Kizuna took her hand and Flamegirl did so in kind. They began to pull with a good amount of force as the characters were pried apart. Flamegirl pulled Alpha away as Kizuna pulled Zetto and tossed the gauntlets aside. The two looked over to their opponent as he became aware of himself.

OneShot looked over to his former wife who held his head in her lap. Tears started to fall out his eyes. "I…I lost again...I failed you again…I need to keep winning…"

"It was never about winning for me…"Orchid said with motherly love. "It was always about your safety and that hasn't changed now." He chuckled a bit to himself.

"I remember the first time I took you to see me fight…that look on your face of worry…not too different than the one right now…All this time I thought it was because you wanted me to win…to be stronger…" He began to cry. "Please…help me…I'm so tired…" Her eyes watered at the request.

"Wait for me at home…I won't leave you alone…"

"…I'm…glad…" With their greatest foe's final words, he faded away. Orchid rose from her position and walked over to the two who helped stop him.

"I have something…no-someone…to take care of. Thank you both for saving him…I'm sure we'll meet again someday. Whether or not I'll still have my job by the end of this, is another story."

"I can't imagine why your job would be at risk…"Kizuna responded dryly. "After all, it was just a rogue hacker. I can't see how he was connected to you at all…" Orchid stopped and realized what Kizuna was doing.

"I…thank you all again…good bye…" She vanished in her blinding light with the crown mark leaving only our team to contend with what needed to be done.

"I should probably let BitShrum and AsterRob know that they have their work cut out for them." Kizuna continued. "I'll be going now. Whether you choose to stay or leave is your call. You've earned it." She started to walk away as Alpha approached Zetto with a whisper.

"Is it really okay to-"

"Stop right there," he teased back. "I already know what you're going to say…"

Zetto walked up to his friend. The others watched, unsure of what was being said. It could have been any number of things…though Alpha knew exactly what was happening. After all, they were best friends.

One month after the events in C.O.M.E., the city itself opened up to the public. Nylocke sat in the pub telling tales of adventure and glitz and glamour as SaturnDiva and Whyti sat in cheer with him. Meanwhile, in Sanctuary, Rockoon and Archy stood in front a memorial. A long green hat sat atop a katana and wedged in stone. They paid their homage to the tombstone of Zetto's former identity. Zetto and Kizuna sat across from each other in the MechCity café in casual conversation. For the first time in forever, Kizuna was enjoying herself in T.O.M.E. itself. Alpha and Flamegirl walked in to join them as they pulled up some seats. OneShot and Orchid saw them in the distance. The group waved them over as Orchid began to wave back. She began to run over there as OneShot hung back. His embarrassment and shame was apparent. He readied himself to go a different way but Orchid caught his hand and led him over where the other 4 still greeted him with open arms and warm smiles.

These were the adventures of our heroes of T.O.M.E. Personal limits were broken…the only limits to be shattered from that day forward are whatever these players actions and their creators imaginations can break.


End file.
